Discovery Keycare Contract to be cancelled

27-Oct-2013

While each medical practice has to decide for themselves, I have decided to cancel my Discovery Keycare Contract from the end of December 2013.

The main reasons in this decision are:
- Lack of access to follow up. No point in me putting in grommets when they cannot be followed up by me. Recently had to write a letter to Discovery to get authorization to help the GP as they were refused a follow up visit on Keycare, especially bad because the child was having problems.

- Lack of access to audiometry and support services. I do not routinely ask for audiology before and after grommets, but there are cases where I NEED audiology to know what is going on and base treatment decisions on it. Recently I have had to ask several favors to get a Keycare patient seen for free at a local audiologist despite several motivations from myself and the GP. When a child with a normal middle ear has hearing concerns, its not time to see how much you can save. Discovery Keycare does not seem to get this message.

- Lack of funding. What Keycare is willing to pay is well under my running costs. In other words, I am running at a loss seeing Keycare patients, and the promised volume is not nearly sufficient to make up for this. Running a private practice costs a lot of money each month.

I will continue to see Keycare patients but from end of December the co-payments will once again be a reality.